Behind the scenes, Republicans are fuming over Trump's indecisiveness on immigration

Republicans have failed to cobble together enough votes
for multiple immigration proposals, despite controlling the
House.

Blame is spread all around, but a big chunk is being
put on a chaotic and often unclear message from the White
House.

WASHINGTON - The ongoing debate in Congress about how to solve a
number of problems with the US immigration process is not going
well.

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Republicans and Democrats in the Senate cannot work together,
stalling every effort. In the House, where Democratic support is
not a necessity, the Republican conference is fractured and
unable to pass uniquely different bills.

It makes matters even worse when President Donald Trump upends
the system with a single tweet, making Republican lawmakers
frustrated with his indecisiveness.

In the current makeup of the House, Trump holds the keys to any
immigration legislation. House Speaker Paul Ryan was adamant
about not putting anything on the floor he was not 100% sure the
president would be willing to sign.

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Many Republican lawmakers live and breathe by Trump's words. And
then Trump came to Capitol Hill to assuage concerns, declined to
offer a full-throated endorsement of any specific bill, and spent
the bulk of his time talking about other issues, including
lobbing an insult at a respected member of the conference.

Days later, Trump made his true feelings known that he has no
desire to address the issue immediately.

"Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration
until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in
November," Trump wrote
on Twitter Friday morning. "Dems are just playing games, have
no intention of doing anything to solves this decades old
problem. We can pass great legislation after the Red
Wave!"

Trump administration officials have been all over the place
on immigration

The Trump administration was all over the place on the issue of
immigration. Multiple Republican aides expressed frustration to
Business Insider with the varying positions taken by
administration officials. Neither Trump nor Homeland Security
Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen ever appeared to be one the same page,
confusing lawmakers, the aides said.

Rep. Mark Walker, who chairs the influential Republican Study
Committee, told reporters on Tuesday that a handful of missed
votes were due to lack of involvement from the White House.

"There was a lot of guys that were in a hair's stretch one way or
the other, but they wanted more from the administration before
they are willing to commit," he said.

In an
interview with Business Insider, Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman,
a moderate Republican on the forefront of the "compromise" bill,
said that senior White House adviser Stephen Miller is a
stonewalling any progress on the issue.

"You will not get anything done. It will never pass the
Congress without some element of compromise," Coffman said. "And
I just don't think Stephen Miller - having met him and had the
opportunity to talk to him once - is capable of advising the
president how to navigate that terrain."

But Sen. John Thune, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate,
told Business Insider that Trump is "just sorta recognizing
the political reality of the situation."

"But that doesn't mean, like [Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell] said that we shouldn't be able to deal with this
narrow issue that family reunification," Thune added. "Whether
there's a broader immigration that can pass, I think that remains
to be seen."

Regardless, Republican leaders in the House are still moving
forward with the second, more moderate bill.

The "compromise" bill could prove to become a huge embarrassment
for House Speaker Paul Ryan. The hardline Goodlatte-McCaul
immigration bill that
failed on Thursday outperformed expectations, falling short
by just 20 votes.